Although Thanksgiving just ended, I can no longer hold in my excitement for Christmas in less than a month. The atmosphere of December alone gets me into the Christmas spirit: red and green and gold and silver start popping up in stores and restaurants; signs go up for Christmas sales; those poor ringers are stand out in the cold in front of stores with that red Salvation Army bucket; stores stock their shelves with ornaments, brightly- and colorfully-decorated wrapping paper, ribbons and bows galore, and any other decoration you could think of; and, if we get lucky this year, snow will start falling before Christmas so the ground will be sheeted with white on Christmas morning.
I don’t know about you guys, but last
year’s lack of snow was very upsetting to me. In my opinion, snow and Christmas
go hand-in-hand; in EVERY Christmas movie or T.V. show, there is cold, fluffy
white stuff everywhere, and every Christmas I’ve had, 18 to be exact, has had a
tremendous amount of snow (last year being the only exception). We live in Iowa , for crying out
loud! Why did we not have three feet of snow before it even
hit December? I don’t know, but I’m really hoping that we will have a white
Christmas this year, instead of a muddy, poop-brown, dirty-looking Christmas.
When I think of Christmas, my first
mental picture is set on Christmas Eve night, looking down my dark street;
snowflakes are falling lightly, quietly onto the already-buried ground. The
sidewalk is coated in a thin sheet of ice and snow that glistens in the light
of the lamp across the street. Houses on my block are decorated with sparkling
lights and lawn ornaments, and their elaborately-dressed Christmas trees are
twinkling in their living room windows. The smell of freshly-baked chocolate
chip cookies and hot cocoa fill the brisk air. That's when I know it's
Christmas time
So far this year, the only thing keeping
me out of the Christmas spirit would be work. Working retail and the Holiday
Season do NOT mix well; I find myself working 7-9-hour shifts every night I'm scheduled
to work. Not only that, but we extended our hours 8am to 11pm until December
14th when we close at MIDNIGHT. I don't think that's going to go over well with
school and whatnot...The only positive is I'll be making bank at work. However,
my grades are most likely going to suffer for a little bit until the holidays
are over. I just don't want to have to quit my job over nine days of late-night
working.
Tonight, my family put up our
Christmas tree. Another one of my favorite memories of Christmas is spending
time with my family, watching Christmas movies and decorating the tree
together. My siblings and I have always gotten a new ornament of our own every
Christmas since we were little, and those are considered "our"
ornaments to put on the tree when we decorate it. My little brother and sister
fight over who gets to climb onto someone's shoulders and place the star on the
top. After we're done making the tree sparkle, my three siblings and I lie on
our backs with our heads underneath the tree and we look up through the
branches at all the lights, glass balls, plastic ornaments and tinsel we just
added to our beautiful tree.
Even though December just got here,
I can already sense Christmas getting closer. Only a few more weeks. Only a few
more school days. I feel like a little kid again, but I truly cannot wait until
Christmas.
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